Launching a frontal attack on the NDA government at the Center over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said people must protect their right to vote to safeguard the Constitution.
The SIR in Bihar has exposed the BJP and the EC, and so people have started calling leaders of the saffron party ‘vote chor’, he claimed while addressing a public rally in Madhubani district as part of the Congress’ ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’.
“BJP leaders are indulging in Vote Chori through the Election Commission… People must come forward to protect their right to vote and also to protect the Indian Constitution,” the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha said.
People must remember that if they lose their voting rights, the Constitution cannot be protected, he asserted.
The EC deleted names of 65 lakh voters from the electoral rolls in Bihar, he said, and alleged that 65 lakh electors would now be added to help the BJP.
“(Union Home Minister) Amit Shah had said that the BJP government will continue for another 40-50 years. Now I realised that he said it because they are involved in 'vote chori' and it started from Gujarat itself,” he said.
Gandhi asserted that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Amit Shah uttered a single word on his charge of "vote theft" by the BJP.
“When a thief is caught, he remains silent, and this is what BJP leaders are doing,” he claimed.
The former Congress president charged the saffron party with changing the election dates.
The PM, and not the EC, decides on dates of elections, he claimed.
The EC was involved in 'vote chori' in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls in favour of the BJP, he alleged.
“Now people have decided to teach them (BJP and its allies) a lesson after this SIR exercise in Bihar… Soon, PM Modi will stop coming out of his Race Course Road residence, as, whenever he delivers his speech in the future, people will call him 'Vote Chor',” Rahul alleged.
He also alleged that the RSS does not respect the Constitution, as it guarantees equal rights to everyone.
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